Alphabets Old and New (1906) — Hardcover Reprint

? PRINTED ON DEMAND — Please allow 3–4 weeks for delivery

This book is printed one copy at a time when you order it. There is no warehouse shelf of these — your copy goes on the press after you check out. Hardcover binding takes longer than paperback. Please allow 3–4 weeks from order to delivery.

About this book

Lewis F. Day was one of the defining designers of Britain's Arts and Crafts era — and Alphabets Old and New (1906) is his survey of the letter as a design object, from ancient inscriptions to the modern poster alphabet. This is not a sign painter's brush manual; it is a designer's reference, written by a man who spent his life thinking about how letters look and why.

The book ranges across the history of the alphabet: Roman capitals cut in stone, medieval manuscript hands, Renaissance calligraphy, and the display letters of Day's own day — each presented as a resource for the working designer rather than a museum piece. Day writes about proportion, character, and fitness: what makes a letter right for its purpose, and how the designer adapts historic forms to modern work.

For the modern lettering artist this is a different kind of nourishment than the trade manuals. Where the sign books teach the hand, Day teaches the eye — the judgment that tells a good alphabet from a merely fancy one. His examples remain some of the best-chosen in the literature: every designer who draws letters should spend time with them.

Written for graphic designers, lettering artists, typographers, calligraphers, and students of design history — and for collectors of Arts and Crafts literature. A designer's alphabet book by one of the masters of the movement.

Details: 6×9" hardcover (case laminate), black and white interior, cream paper.

?? Please read before ordering — about print quality

This is a print-on-demand reprint of a scanned historical document. The pages were scanned from an original 1906 printing, and the print quality of your book reflects the condition of that original scan.

What that means in plain terms: you may see faded text, uneven inking, age spots, show-through from the back of pages, and other imperfections that were in the 1906 original or introduced by the scanning process. These are preserved as-is — they are not printing defects, and they are not something we can fix.

We are not responsible for the condition of the original source material. If you want a pristine modern typeset book, this isn't it. If you want the actual 1906 book with all its character intact, you're in the right place.

Printed on demand by IngramSpark. One copy at a time — no inventory, no waste.